Why DON'T you pirate?

[Ktulu]

I don't pirate for a multitude of reasons. The one that stands out most is I'm happy to pay for a solid quality product. While telling the author I love his work is all well and good, my $$ speaks volumes more than my words. If I don't care for the quality, I won't buy it and have no need stealing it, either (why steal crap?)

 

[grickherder]

You seriously don't get that it's not the "1001101110111011" resident on your hard drive that's the property? It's the song that is the property. (Or the verbal expression of ideas within the PDF. Or whatever.)

If I have a car for sale, and you take the engineering specs for the car and build yourself one, you've stolen something. The fact that I still have my car for sale is irrelevant. You've stolen my intellectual property.

If I have a song for sale, and you take all the digital information that allows you to play my song, you've stolen something. The fact that I still have my song is irrelevant. You've stolen my intellectual property.

No, you have that exactly wrong. The word intellectual property refers to the ownership of the rights to exclusive reproduction of that work. A song writer does not own the song but owns the exclusive rights of reproduction and distribution. They have a protected monopoly on it.

To see this in action, look what can be rented, sold or purchased. It's the rights. People can license rights. People can purchase and sell the rights. You can't sell the song itself in some sort of transfer of platonic forms out there some where.

 

[Elephant]

Whether it's theft or "just" copyright violation, it's still wrong. Either way, you are receiving something that is being sold for no money.

Funny, that didn't seem to be a problem when I opened my Christmas presents last year.

I don't understand this idea that it's somehow inherently wrong to receive things without paying for them. Should we outlaw soup kitchens for giving away food when restaurants are trying to get people to pay for meals? No? How about libraries? I didn't pay for the novel I read last week, I borrowed it from the local library.

I do understand (and agree with) the idea that it's wrong to deprive others of their property without their consent. After all, if you steal my books, I can't read them anymore.

If, on the other hand, you sneak into my house while I'm away, make copies of my books, and bring home the copies to read yourself, I might not even notice (unless you broke something or left a book on the wrong shelf).

 

[Elephant]

In twenty or thirty years, when IP laws are just a distant and weird memory, none of this debating will matter anyway.

Probably the most salient point regarding the offtopic debating in this thread (and debating about copyright in general). I'm not sure I agree with your optimistic assessment of the ultimate fate of IP laws, but that's another point that won't matter in twenty or thirty years

 

[Jeff Wilder]

No, you have that exactly wrong.

No, I'm afraid not. Your understanding of property, in general, is limited.

The word intellectual property refers to the ownership of the rights to exclusive reproduction of that work. A song writer does not own the song but owns the exclusive rights of reproduction and distribution. They have a protected monopoly on it.

This is what property is, in every form. The first thing a 1L learns in Real Property is that property is a "bundle of rights." The right to sell, to lease, to waste, to do whatever.

Property is rights. It doesn't matter if it's intellectual, personal, or real property, it's all a matter of rights of control.

For ease of discussion, however, we refer to the "house I own," not "the right of control of this structure and the land at this location," though that's actually what we mean we refer to property. It's just as proper to refer to the "song I own," although it's not done as often, because so many people don't grok that all property, not just intellectual property, involves rights of control.

 

[Klaus]

Funny, that didn't seem to be a problem when I opened my Christmas presents last year.

I don't understand this idea that it's somehow inherently wrong to receive things without paying for them. Should we outlaw soup kitchens for giving away food when restaurants are trying to get people to pay for meals? No? How about libraries? I didn't pay for the novel I read last week, I borrowed it from the local library.

I do understand (and agree with) the idea that it's wrong to deprive others of their property without their consent. After all, if you steal my books, I can't read them anymore.

If, on the other hand, you sneak into my house while I'm away, make copies of my books, and bring home the copies to read yourself, I might not even notice (unless you broke something or left a book on the wrong shelf).

Christman presents -> Someone paid for them.
Soup Kitchens -> Someone paid/donated the ingredients and the work.

A more accurate parallel would be:

You're selling some books you wrote. At night, someone sneaks into your house, steals the books, makes copies, sneaks back in an places the books back. Next time you're trying to sell your books, you see that a lot of people you didn't sell to have copies that they are reading. Regardless of wether those copies were given for free or sold, the fact remains that a lot of people who might otherwise buy your books will no longer pay you for them.

 

[pawsplay]

I love the people who somehow try to justify their piracy by claiming that everything works out in the big picture.

Isn't that the same justification for draconian enforcement of IP laws?

 

[Belgarath]

I used to pirate on 2 conditions

1. to check out something before I bought it. If i didn't like it enough to buy, I did not keep the file

2. In rpgs, I was usually the game master, so I needed a lot of rules. I would pirate a book that someone else used, but had no interest in myself.

That being said, I had once downloaded a virus with one of these books. That is the reason I no longer pirate. Too much of a hassle to get rid of such things

 

[Invisible Stalker]

Because I'm not a thief.


Thankfully my income is derived with physical property. You can't download farmland and if you try to "pirate" it, you'll get a bullet between the eyes for your trouble.

 

[smetzger]

I think we need to split 'piracy' into two different types...
1) Downloading pdfs etc
2) Distributing pdfs etc.

Strictly USA here, other countries may have different laws.
#1 is NOT illegal, its not against the law and you cannot be prosecuted for it
#2 is illegal and you can be prosecuted for it.

I don't distribute because it is illegal.
I don't download because I don't have the time or inclination and I believe it to be immoral.